Be Still, My Cold Dead Heart
by BenadrylCrumplesack
Summary: The Chief asked her to create a diversion, not commit treason. He definitely didn’t ask her to shoot the Infinity’s captain. But she did anyway. What else would you expect from Kasey Adams MD, professional idiot, dirty liar, human/Sangheili mutant thing? Whatever. Sometimes a doctor has to do what she knows is right & do the wrong thing to get there. Sequel to Laughing At The World
1. Chapter 1

_**Prologue**_  
 _ **xxxxxxxxxx**_

 _People knew who she was. There was no way they couldn't know who she was. She wasn't the kind of ordinary that goes unnoticed. No, she was far from ordinary, or unnoticeable. She had been places, done things and had the kind of qualities that prevented her from being ordinary._

 _She had been to the galaxy's most horrific prison, a special kind of hell, and had walked out of it, thriving. She had saved countless lives with her ability to think on her feet. She had started a war, a war born out of something personal, a grudge. Those who had seen her in the rage of a firefight described her as fearless. Described her as unshakeable._

 _Even the Spartans had a respect for her. Those that the Spartans would consider friend were few and far between, but she was one of them. It was rumor that she had once fought the Master Chief and won. It was truth that they often sought each other's company, to talk and to spend time with one another in the way that close companions do. There were so few others who had such a privilege, but that she was one of them surprised no one._

 _There were those that dared to say that even Dr. Halsey had a certain admiration of her and all that she had accomplished in her young life thus far._

 _When she walked into a room, people immediately noticed her. She was tall, very tall. Taller than a human should be, almost as tall as a Spartan. She was not a statuesque beauty, though. She was built solidly, as if built to subdue any enemy that may try their hand at attacking her. But she was beautiful, in a dangerous sort of way. Her lips were not full, nor sensual, but they had a certain character to them that rendered them alluring, regardless. The subtle twin scars that adorned each side of her mouth gave her face a rugged character that seemed to allude to a hardness in her, an adaptability that led her to live with such disfisgurement, and transform it into majesty. Her teeth, when she smiled, were not the kind of straight, white human teeth, they seemed almost sharp and savage. It gave her a connotation of being a kind of predator, hunting down those who would cross her. Her eyes seemed brown, on the surface, but they crackled and burned with a light that turned them a color one couldn't quite name. Her hair was long, and though it could be described as a simple brunette, her hair was something shimmering and sensual that rendered the word "brunette" inadequate. She stood out in a crowd, if only for the way she carried herself, for the way she walked, a way that couldn't quite be described, but was something not typical. People were drawn to her, and there were those that desired her. But it was said that her heart belonged to someone she had known since her childhood, someone that none could equal. She and her lover had that in common. None could equal her, either. None could carry themselves the way she did, achieve what she'd achieved, put forth the demeanor that she had. She was the kind of person you'd never thought would exist in reality, but the kind of person that lives only in legend._

 _But If you told her all of what was previously mentioned, of the way people saw her, of the way they talked of her, of the way she seemed to the rest of the universe, she would only respond with something along the lines of "Are you fucking high? Fuck no. People only talk because I'm a fucking shitshow. Get out of here with your bullshit."_


	2. Chapter 2

**Author Note: I loved this character too much to let her go.**

I collapsed back onto the bed, my chest heaving. I was winded. Goddamn. I clearly needed to work out more. Running some cushy UNSC program as an instructor was making me soft.

Thel 'Vadam collapsed onto the bed next to me, his chest also heaving. It made me feel a little less weak and out of shape to hear him breathing so heavily too, since he was a Sangheili warrior at the peak of physical perfection.

And I do mean physical perfection. Like, goddamn.

That physical perfection was especially attractive right now, since I hadn't seen him in close to six months. We'd sent video messages back and forth, but I hadn't actually been physically near him in six months. And it had been really crappy.

Of course, I'd known it would be this way, with me in the UNSC, running their ODMD program, and him on Sanghelios, doing Sangheili Arbiter bullshit.

But still, six months? That had been way too long. When I'd received the orders to drop onto Sanghelios to assist with the civil war that had been raging, the one I'd technically started by killing my father (long story), I'd had to control myself so I didn't start yelling about how I was totally going to get laid while I was there. UNSC brass wouldn't have taken too kindly to that, even though it was common knowledge that I was in a serious and committed relationship with the Arbiter.

"Khase." Thel said my name, his voice heavy with emotion, his breathing still ragged. "I have missed you."

"Missed me, or missed my vagina?" I asked, rolling onto my right side to face him, raising my eyebrows.

He was still laying on his back, and I caught an eyeroll from him. "I would be eternally grateful if you found yourself capable of being an adult for five minutes."

Oh, damn. He was starting to sound like me. I guess that's what happens when you find your soulmate and she turns out to be a total fucking shithead.

"I'll ignore the insult in favor of focusing on the fact that you've missed me." I retorted, running my finger across the mark on his chest.

He caught my hand with his, and pushed it flat against his chest. "I have indeed missed you. It has been too long since I've had you in my arms."

I fought the urge to make a really epic dick joke, because I was genuinely trying to be an adult for five minutes. "I've missed you, too."

"You have been here for some days and this is the first time I have had you alone." He heaved in a breath. "I must confess that has not sat well with me, though I know you have been doing important work here."

"Very important work." I sighed. "Half of your doctors didn't even know what a running whip stitch was before I got here. The medical care here on Sanghelios is abysmal."

"You know as I do that any profession of the medical kind is considered shameful here."

"Well, an alliance with humanity used to be considered shameful, too. You'd think attitudes about medical care would change along with that."

"Our people see far more good from an alliance with humanity than they see in adequate medical care. You know that."

"Your people, Thel. As much as I'd love to call them our people, they're not my people."

He started to protest, but I brought my free hand up to put a finger over his mandibles.

"Shhh. Let me finish. Humans aren't my people either. I'm stuck between two worlds, not belonging anywhere."

"You belong with me." He said, as he wrested my finger away.

"I know. You've never shown me otherwise."

He let go of my hand, the one that had been previously held against his chest, and stroked my hair. "You have been gone from me for far too long. My hearts have ached for you, yearned for you, and it seems to be a dream that you are here."

I definitely wanted to gracefully roll over to him and get close enough to whisper something touching and sensual, but my agility was seriously fucking lacking, so all I ended up doing was thrashing around for a few seconds until I ended up with my torso halfway draped across his chest, my face close to his. Whatever. I'd take it.

"I'm here, my Arbiter. And if it were my choice to stay here forever, with you, I would."

It had been a while since that whole bullshit mission thing with Vale and those fuckups I called my ODST Team. Almost two years. The civil war on Sanghelios had been going a long time. Unfortunately, the Separationists (the name of those who were in favor of severing the alliance with humanity, the name that they had given themselves, a name pretty clearly almost ripped off of a popular science fiction franchise) had teamed up with the Covenant Remnant that had reared their ugly heads on Sanghelios again, so they had a significant amount of firepower that the Swords and the UNSC hadn't anticipated. The UNSC had contacted me, asking me to go to Sanghelios to help out with the medical personnel they had stationed at a large, makeshift hospital of sorts on the planet's surface, asking me to help teach the medical personnell working there, human and Sangheili alike. It had been encouraging to me to see quite a few Sangheili medical personnel, the growing interest in my field of choice meaning that the attitude towards doctors on my homeworld had been slowly changing.

I'd immediately agreed to drop down to help out. Not out of the goodness of my heart. Not because I wanted to show people that I was not only a superb doctor, but an awesome teacher, no. I agreed because on the off chance I had some down time to get down and dirty with my dude, I'd take it. Medicine is cool and all, but it doesn't come close to finally being able to get it on with your significant other after not seeing them for months.

In the two years this thing had been going on between us, I'd learned to sort of communicate my feelings in a way that wasn't aggressive and simultaneously awkard. God, I'd even learned how to say things that could be mistaken for romantic. I had made some serious progress.

Thel sighed, jolting me out of my head. "Unfortunately, you and I cannot stay here forever. I must return to the battlefield, and you must return to your position at the medical facility. Our time together has been brief..." He paused, and wrapped his arms around me, tightly.

"But it's been good." I said, softly, pressing my lips to his mandibles.

Even though we'd been doing this for almost two years, it was still a little weird every time he tried to kiss me. If you're not fully prepared for a set of two mandibles wrapping completely around the lower half of your face, you shouldn't do the kissing thing with a Sangheili. Because, let me tell you, it's super fucking weird. And there's saliva. Who's saliva? That's anyone's guess. But it's wet, and it's sloppy, and unless you really fucking love the Sangheili that set of mandibles is attached to, it's gonna be weird and slightly gross. Luckily, I did really fucking love the Sangheili who's mandibles were sucking at my face. So it wasn't gross or totally weird.

Seriously, though. Making out with a Sangheili really adds a new understanding to the phrase "sucking face".

Especially when the mandibles completely cover your mouth and nose. You have a limited amount of time before you run out of air.

And I'd just run out of air. I couldn't pull back, because he was gripping the back of my head, keeping it where it was.

I deeply appreciated the passion with which he sucked my face, but oxygen was also something I deeply appreciated.

"Mmmph." I managed to mumble, as I slapped his chest a few times, gently. I was basically tapping out. Kasey can't breathe, Thel. You want to keep her around, you should definitely let go.

And he did. Thank fuck. My shitty life had just flashed before my eyes for the second time.

I sucked in a breath. "That was great. It would be more great if my nose was in a better location, like on my forehead, though."

He chuckled. "It would make your face seem strange, I think."

"Strange, but convenient." I retorted, rolling out of the bed.

I started picking my clothes up off of the floor from the various places I'd discarded them upon entering the room. My bra was nowhere to be found. Whatever. I'm sure I'd be back for it, eventually.

I turned and saw the white coat draped gracefully across a chair. Even in my desperately horny state, I'd managed to show the white coat the respect it deserved. Score one for Adams.

I shrugged it on, and as I did so, I saw Thel holding something out to me, him only halfway into his armor.

He was holding out my bra.

Fuck that. I was already dressed. I wasn't taking all this shit off just to put that bitch on. "Keep it. In case we have to go another six months without seeing each other." I said, waving my hand at him.

If he had eyebrows, he'd probably have raised one of them. "You want me to keep it?"

"Yeah. Call it a souvenir. Like, I visited Adams's vagina and all I got was this shitty undergarment type thing."

He just shook his head at me. "I love you, truly, I do, but I do wonder about your sanity quite often."

"You and me both, buddy." I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing important." I said, waving my hand again and approaching him. I wrapped my arms around him and laid my head on his chest. "God, I'm going to miss you."

He wrapped his arms around me too, his grip like iron. "I will miss you far more than you will miss me."

"Lies and slander."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"No you won't miss me more than I'll miss you? You're right. You won't."

I felt his laugh as it rippled through his chest. "You have such a way with words, Khase."

"I'm also dead right, 100% of the time. The sooner you accept this, the smoother the rest of our lives will go."

He was quiet a moment. "You intend for this continue for the rest of your life?"

"Of course." I said, softly. "The moment I'll stop loving you is the moment death takes me. And even after that, I'm sure I'll become a poltergeist that will constantly annoy the shit out of you by throwing your armor across the room the second you try to go grab it."

He chuckled again. "I would expect nothing less from you." He put his face into my hair. "I as well will continue to love you from beyond the grave."

"How romantic, albeit morbid."

"I do try."

I reached up and pulled him in for a swift kiss, lest I get caught in an other bout of oxygen deprived face sucking, then moved towards the door.

Before I left, I turned back, seeing him putting on the rest of his armor.

"I love you." I said, softly, willing my brain to commit this sight of him to memory.

He looked up from his task, a light of something I couldn't quite name shining in his eyes. "And I, you."

And then I left.


	3. Chapter 3

Leaving Thel always made me a cranky bitch. I almost felt bad for whoever I first encountered that would have to deal with my shitty attitude.

But when I saw who it was, I didn't feel bad at all. This person had been dealing with my attitude for quite a while and was still around, so they could probably handle it.

Olympia Vale. The only person in the galaxy who's bitchiness could rival my own. A friend I could always count on to jeer at me when I made stupid ass decisions. Someone who would never leave me, because the amusement I brought to the table was reason enough for her to stick around.

"Oh god. Look what the cat dragged in and barfed up." I sneered, walking right past her.

"Don't talk about yourself that way." She sneered back, whacking the back of my head as I passed her.

"Fucking ow, you piece of shit."

"Fight me, asshole. I'll do worse than that."

"No thanks. I prefer to pick on people my own size."

"Fuck off, Adams."

"Why'd you haul your sorry carcass down here, anyway? Couldn't find anyone else willing to listen to your shitty one liners?"

"Nah, I just needed a crash course in shitty one liners and you're the most qualified person for that."

I was mildly impressed. She'd gotten better at throwing shade. Of course, if she was going to throw shade, I was going to throw the whole damn tree.

"Why go for a crash course on shitty one liners when you're already so pro at them?"

Okay, so maybe I threw a small branch instead of the tree. Whatever. It didn't matter. What mattered is that I hadn't seen her in a long time, and she'd showed up out of nowhere.

The fact that she was somehow always around soon after I'd gotten down and dirty with Thel creeped me out slightly, but maybe that was a calculated move on her part. God knows she'd gotten good at fucking with me.

I turned around and waited for her to catch up with me. "Now that we're through with the chain of insults I clearly sent into a fiery death spiral with that last statement, what's going on? Why are you here?"

Vale stopped, and I had taken a few more steps before I noticed, so when I stopped, I was about ten feet away from her. "Vale? What is it?"

She just looked at me. "I...I was just sent here briefly to translate a message between the Separationists and the Covenant Remnant that the UNSC intercepted, and relay it to the appropriate individuals. I'd told Thel about it hours ago, but I've been waiting around until I had a moment to see you. To tell you something in person." She glanced down the hallway behind her, as if someone was coming for her, and she needed to relay the information quickly. "I don't have much time. I told them I had to pee, but I didn't know you and Thel needed that much time to get busy, otherwise I'd have told them I needed to take a shit or something."

"Vale, you are wasting valuable time telling me about your various bowel movement excuses. Please get to the fucking point."

She shot me a dirty look, but continued. "Just get back to Earth when you can. The Greasy Spoon, 3pm."

I looked at her, completely confused. "What? The Greasy Spoon? What the fuck are you-"

"Adams, don't question it. Just do it. I have to go." She whirled around and practically sprinted back down the way she'd came.

"What the fuck?" I wondered aloud. Why the fuck had she told me to go back to Earth and go to the Greasy Spoon at three? I mean, I loved the Greasy Spoon. A better seedy dive bar with great food and drinks filled with people who had made poor life choices you wouldn't find anywhere on Earth, but why the fuck had she wasted time just to say that? What the fuck was going on?

"Was that Spartan Vale?" A quiet, yet awed voice assaulted my confused thoughts.

It was one of the doctors who had been in one of my training classes, a younger one, a white dude, maybe nineteen.

"Yeah, that was Spartan Vale." I said absentmindedly, still wondering about what she'd said.

"Wow. Why was she running?"

"Uh...She really had to poop. You know, strange Sangheili food. Really gives you the runs. Spartans really run majestically even when they're about to shit themselves, right?" I said, looking at the young doctor. Ha. That should get around quick. Look at me, making up for the shitty one liner.

The young doctor gave me a strange look. "Spartan Vale talks to you? Wasn't she part of the fireteam that brought back the Master Chief and his team from Genesis? I can't believe someone like that would talk to you."

"Listen here, you little shit. Vale and I go way back. I taught her practically everything she knows about great one liners." I thought for a second, then added, "But any one liners she throws out that are shitty, I didn't teach her that. That's all her."

The young doctor's brow furrowed a little bit. "People say that you're important, that you're gifted, that there are a lot of really high up people that like you alot. But you're really weird."

I just looked at him. "Yeah. Welcome to my fucking internal dialogue."

"So you're not important?"

"No, I'm important. I'm the literal shit. You have no idea."

He gave me a look that showed me he didn't believe me. "Why would you be important?"

I was taller than him, being a Sangheili/human mutant thing, so I had to bend down a little to get to eye level with him. "Why would I be important? My mother is the UNSC ambassador to this planet. My father was the head of the Separationists. I killed him, about two years ago. Energy sword to the chest. He almost killed me, by slicing into my side with an energy sword. I literally stapled my side in order to survive long enough to get to the Infinity so Dr. Halsey could treat me." I relished in the kid's look of shock. "Yeah. Dr. Halsey. Put me in a medically induced coma for two weeks to keep me alive. Told me my resume was impressive. Captain Lasky thinks I'm one of the best assets the UNSC has. I kick it with Fireteam Osiris regularly. The Arbiter? I'm the most important thing in the galaxy to him. I literally just got done letting him have extensive carnal knowledge of me." The kid cringed slightly. Good. But I'm not done, kid. Not even remotely.

I stepped back so I wasn't in his face anymore. I'd delivered that super awkward line about carnal knowledge while in his personal space, which was fucking hilarious. I regretted absolutely nothing. "I'm half Sangheili, half human. These face scars people keep looking at? Yeah, I had mandibles as a kid. Not anymore, thanks to one hell of a plastic surgeon. But make no mistake: Hand me an energy sword, and I'm as lethal as any Elite. Not only that, but I was the first person to successfully use trepanation in a combat situation to relieve an epidural hematoma."

The young doctor gasped. "That was you?"

FUCKING FINALLY. IT WAS ABOUT GODDAMN TIME SOMEONE RECOGNIZED THE SHEER BADASSERY OF THAT MEDICAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. Fucking motherfucking shit, he was literally the first person to be impressed by that. Holy shit, it was about goddamn time. Holy fuck. Finally. I could die happy. I'd just had a crazy roll in the hay with Thel 'Vadam and someone had finally recognized the sheer magnitude of one of my greatest medical accomplishments. That's it. Adams had officially reached the point where death could take and she'd go willingly. Goodbye, cruel world. I'm ready for the sweet release of death. Everything I've ever wanted has been achieved. Sock it to me.

"You're goddamn right that was me. Who beat the Master Chief in hand to hand combat? Me. Who introduced him to single malt scotch whisky? Me. That's why I'm important. I'm so motherfucking important, you can't even begin to comprehend it. I'm Khase motherfucking 'Nradaman, and I'm fucking important. Bitch." I added that last comment for good measure. It was probably totally unnecessary, but it felt good.

God, I should write that whole little speech down just in case someone else decided to question my importance.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get my happy ass back to Earth and to a place called the Greasy Spoon. Don't question it. Just scurry along and tell everyone here just how goddamn fucking important I am." I waved a hand at the young doctor.

He actually complied, scurrying away. He'd better fucking tell people. Hopefully he remembered that whole speech. Especially the carnal knowledge thing. God, I love how uncomfortable that made him. I need to say that more often.

I tried to force the sudden thoughts of how Thel could potentially die fighting in the war on Sanghelios that sprang to my head, unbidden. Nah, not going to think about that bullshit. All that would do is drive me absolutely fucking insane.

After watching the kid scurry along like I'd told him to, I made my way to the command center of the makeshift hospital. It was at this moment that I noticed I'd received a message from someone. Good god. You waste an hour in this place fucking around throwing scalpels at a wall to see if you can hit that one spot on the drywall that's brown and no one cares. Leave for an hour to get it on with the Arbiter and suddenly everyone fucking needs you.

I sat down at the console and swiped with my hand to open the message. It was from Lasky. "Hospital Corpsman First Class Adams." He paused in the video message, clearly pleased with himself that he had gotten my rank right. I didn't blame him. My rank was pretty goddamn atypical and most people hadn't heard of that rank. "HIGHCOM needs you. Get yourself to the Infinity as quickly as you can."

Well, well, well. Oh, how the turns have tabled. For once, HIGHCOM needs me, instead of the other way around. Given Vale's cryptic message about the Greasy Spoon and the sudden need that HIGHCOM had of me, things were starting to get real, and quick.

I was heading back to the Infinity. About goddamn time.

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I exited the Pelican into the Infinity's loading dock that was bustling with activity.

"So this is the Infinity." I breathed softly, remembering what I'd said upon arriving on the Infinity for the very first time almost two years ago. God, the nostalgia. It was almost like being here for the first time, except instead of being some wildly underappreciated medic, I was now a wildly overappreciated medic. It's amazing how things can change in a few years.

I quickly made my way up to the bridge, the layout of the Infinity still familiar to me, even after the time that had passed.

I saw Lasky standing with Palmer. God, yet some things never changed, did they?

"Tom!" I called out, walking towards the two of them. "Commander Palmer." I said, nodding at her, trying to keep a grin off my face. The last time I'd seen her, she had been shitfaced and trying to describe to me exactly what her little tryst with both Tanaka and Lasky had consisted of. Ah, good times. Good times. Probably mortifying for her, but that was one of the times that I definitely liked to think about whenever I needed a good laugh.

She nodded at me. "Adams." Her tone was friendly, but her eyes told me not to fucking mention anything. My lips are sealed, Palmer. For now.

"Kasey." Lasky stepped forward and shook my hand warmly. I was aware of more than a few pairs of eyes on the bridge staring at us. Very few people were on a first name basis with the Captain, but I was one of them. Keep staring, bitches. I'm hot shit. Don't forget that.

"Good to see you. It's been a while." I said, lurching awkwardly as he yanked my hand and pulled me in for a hug. Ah, yes. I'd forgotten that hugs were a normal thing between people on a first name basis. I usually settle for awkward shoulder pats.

"It has." He coughed awkwardly. "Uh, someone inquired after you. I hope you won't mind if I tell them you're doing well."

I looked at him, fighting confusion. "What? Who?"

I saw Palmer roll her eyes and turn away. "Just tell her, Tom."

Lasky coughed again. "Someone I've been seeing. He inquires after you quite a lot, but I've had to tell him I don't really know what you've been up to."

I was confused as fuck. Who the hell has been asking about me? Bitches better be keeping my name out of their mouth, or so help me god. "Uh. You can tell him I've never been better?"

Lasky just nodded. "I will."

Palmer just shook her head, looking mildly disgusted. "No shame in telling her about your boyfriend, Tom."

Lasky went fifty shades of red and threw a glance at Palmer. "He's not my boyfriend."

I held up my hands. "Wait one fucking second. Boyfriend not boyfriend? Asking about me?" I narrowed my eyes at Lasky. "Is it who I fucking think it is?"

Lasky cleared his throat. "Probaby. Uh, yes, Karl has been asking about you."

He motherfucking better be. I'd be pissed to hell and back if he wasn't. I relayed such sentiments to Lasky. "He'd better be. Tell that little bitch he owes me a drink."

Palmer turned to me, looking interested. "Oh? For what?"

"For that shot of liquid courage. And I don't mean alcohol, I mean the literal shot of adrenaline I gave him that night he went over to go hit you up in that bar." I said, looking at Lasky.

Lasky opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off before he could get the chance. "Whatever you two are doing, I don't want to know. What I do want to know is why HIGHCOM wants me here."

Lasky cleared his throat again. "Uh, yes. They called you here because they want to send you to this medical facility on Reach. It's a very hush hush project, one they want to pick the right doctor to oversee." He paused, and stared at me, his eyes searching mine. "You can refuse, Kasey. You don't have to go."

I frowned. "Okay, what's the catch?"

Lasky took in a breath. "They need you there to oversee the augmentations of some Spartans."

"They literally have tons of doctors to do that. Why ask me?"

"It's a prestigious position, and they want to offer it to someone important."

"We both know that's the official story, and we both know its officially bullshit. Why do they really want me there?"

Lasky glanced at Palmer, who jerked her head at him. Those two had better fucking tell me what the hell was going on.

"They..." Lasky hesitated. "They want you out of the way. They want you occupied."

"Why?"

"We're not sure." Palmer said, quietly, glancing around the bridge. "All we know is that the position they're offering you seems like a very convenient way to isolate you from anyone and everyone who knows you."

I studied them both for a minute. I knew they were telling me the truth. Because they both knew that if they lied to me, I'd kill them. I'd killed my own father, for fuck's sake. And he was a Sangheili warrior, trained to fight from birth. They'd been out of the fight for a while and were probably wimpy as shit, so killing them would be easy.

"What time is it? Earth time, Pacific Zone time, I mean?" I asked Lasky.

His brow furrowed in confusion. "It's..." He glanced at the console behind him. "It's about 1:53, Pacific Zone time. Why?"

"The why isn't important. How about you guys drop me off on Earth for about five hours?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him. I was having some suspicions. And anytime my bitch ass had suspicions, it meant something seriously weird was going down.

"Of course. Can I ask why? Officially?" Lasky asked.

"Officially? I need some time to get a drink to contemplate this prestigious offer. HIGHCOM knows that I'm more or less a raging alcoholic."

Lasky nodded. Then he put a hand on my shoulder. "Unofficially...whatever it is you're going to do on Earth, will you let me know the why when you get back?"

"Absoluely." I told him.

And I would. I just needed to go find myself a Greasy Spoon first. Because I had one of my classic Adams sneaking suspicions that Vale and her cryptic bullshit would tie into this somehow.

And my classic Adams sneaking suspicions were hardly ever wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Note: I don't know how clear this was made the first time around, but the original story takes place some time after Halo 5, and operates under the assumption that Cortana has been removed as a threat and is currently under the supervision of Dr. Halsey. This story also operates under the same assumption. Also, I received some concern with a lack of character development, and a lack of maturity. On the first point, I hope to allow for far more character development. On the second point, if maturity is something you're looking for, you should definitely look elsewhere. There isn't a shred of maturity to be found here.**

I kicked open the doors to the Greasy Spoon, and they slammed into the walls behind them with a loud bang. Several people turned around, wondering who could be entering with such force.

Me, an individual with an inexplicable penchant for kicking doors, that's who.

The bartender and owner, Sal, just glared at me from the bar and shook his head. The two people he had been talking to didn't even turn around. Which was completely expected from those two.

It was 3:37. So I'd gotten here a little late. Whatever. It was the best I could've done on short notice, and Vale would just have to suck it up.

What I hadn't expected was to see John with her. John didn't drink in public. He didn't used to drink at all, until I'd introduced him to the magic that was single barrel malt scotch or whatever it was. Basically, I'd peer pressured him to a bar sometime last year and ordered something akin to gasoline and had him drink it, and he'd liked it. Go figure.

I had expected to see two Sangheili sitting closely enough to hear what was said, but far enough away to not cause suspicion. Which they were. Unfortunately for them, I was always suspicious. And I was always on guard. It's a necessity when you're important to someone important. It was far from the first time two Swords had showed up to somewhere I was supposed to be, and I'd learned to recognize them. I'd been able to identify the two Sangheili at the bar as Swords here for the purpose of keeping an eye on me because of two reasons: one, they were both drinking water. Why? Less ice in the glasses that sat in front of them. Sal always puts a massive amount of ice in alcoholic drinks, and very little in glasses of water. So they were drinking water. Which clearly meant they weren't there to unwind after a hard day of being Swords of Sanghelios. The second thing was that they were sitting at the bar. Sangheili are military strategists by nature, and when they enter an establishment, they usually pick a spot that allows them to survey the establishment for any threat, while still having their backs protected. The fact that they were sitting at the bar, with their backs to the door, meant they had some kind of motive that required them to be sitting at the bar. Which meant they were there for me.

I turned my attention back to John and Vale. Judging by the amount of glasses in front the two of them, they'd both been here drinking for awhile.

Clearly, I was behind on the drinking part.

I sat between them and gestured to Sal. "Give me a bottle of vodka."

"How about I give you a glass?" Sal said, raising an eyebrow.

"If you give me a bottle, I'll stop kicking your doors."

"Deal."

He grabbed a bottle off the shelf, opened it, and set in front of me.

I took a moment to chug about half of it, then turned and looked at both Vale and John, respectively. "Okay. Who wants to tell me why I'm here and why you guys are drinking so heavily?"

They traded looks.

"You know, we've all known each other a bit of time. And we've all gotten pretty close in that amount of time. And you'd think, after that amount of time, you two would know that I really hate it when people give each other cryptic looks instead of just telling me what it is I need to fucking know." I said, leveling the two of them with a look that would wither any plant or private.

Vale put her hands up, then grabbed her drink and downed it. "This one's all you, Chief."

I looked at John. His eyes, normally sharp and clear, were clouded with alcohol and some kind of emotion I couldn't name, but definitely wasn't good.

I leaned on the bar, effectively blocking Vale from his view. "Hey. What's wrong?" I asked, softly, my eyes searching his for some clue as to why he looked like that.

"About 36 hours ago, I received a message. It was broken. Fragmented. Barely understandable." He motioned to Sal, who quickly responded with another glass. John drank that, then motioned again.

This time, when Sal put the glass down, I put my hand over it. "You want the sweet relief of your newfound coping mechanism, you have to tell me what's going on, first." I said, firmly. I wasn't going to let him drink himself into oblivion without giving him the relief of having someone else to help him shoulder his burden. Sometimes, you had to push him. Opening up wasn't his thing. But sometimes, he really needed someone there to help him out, and I was going to be that person right now.

John looked at me, his eyes carrying a heavy look, his brow furrowed. "It was from Cortana."

I sat up, ramrod straight. "It what? But she's been contained by Dr. Halsey for a while. Like, for quite a long time. That was all taken care of. How could she contact you?"

"The message didn't come from her containment unit." John tried to pull the glass out from under my hand, but due to my now full-grown half Sangheili strength, he couldn't. Nice try, sweetheart. You're not getting any of this liquid savior until you give me the dirty details and give your inner turmoil some reprieve.

"Where did it come from?" I demanded, pushing down harder on the glass.

"Give that to me." John ordered me, his eyes growing cold.

"No." I said, my voice colder.

He leaned forward, into my face. Ah, yes: drunk, emotional, belligerent John. Nice of him to make an appearance. "Now."

"Nooooo." I said, drawing out my answer, leaning forward and tilting my head as my forehead touched his, staring into his eyes, widening my own into that look of complete psycho that I was known for.

The tension was thick as we both stared each other down. I could go from caring friend to stone cold bitch just as quickly as he could go from impeccably self controlled Spartan to drunk fight starter.

"It came from Genesis." Vale cut in, sounding disgusted. Apparently, she wasn't impressed with our display of aggression. Whatever.

I blinked and leaned back. "What? How? Isn't that planet, like, dead?"

John leaned back too. "Inactive. It's been left alone since Cortana took the Guardians and left there."

"But apparently not, if you got a message from there." I said, finishing off my bottle of vodka and sliding it away from me, motioning to Sal.

"No more vodka for you." He grunted.

"Bruh, I'm half Sangheili. That's maybe like, one drink for me. Don't give me that."

"Will you stop getting into fistfights?"

I stopped and thought a moment. "No, but I'll stop throwing people over the bar?"

Sal slid me a bottle of red wine.

"What the fuck, man? This isn't vodka!"

"You didn't agree to my terms. You compromised. I'm doing the same."

I just muttered under my breath.

"What was that?" Sal asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I said, 'thank you, Sal. you're a gem.' That's what I said." I said, putting my hands up. The Arbiter may be my bitch, but I was definitely Sal's bitch. Your bartender is important, folks. Stay on their good side.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." He moved to serve another customer, but was still close enough that he could hear our conversation. I didn't blame him. This was a conversation that was pretty worth eavesdropping on. None of us minded, though, because Sal was a steel trap. He liked knowing, but he hated telling. It was the main reason we always came to this bar, instead of meeting somewhere more professional.

I turned back to John. "So what does that have to do with me?"

He leveled a serious look at me. "I'm taking my team to Genesis to find Cortana. What I need from you is something incredibly important, and incredibly serious."

"Tell her what the message said." Vale grunted, waving her hand, apparently not wanting him to tell me what his important and serious request was.

I felt very left out. Clearly, I wasn't the first person he'd told, and I resented that. I'd literally started the friendship between him and Vale, but look at them now, being all buddy-buddy and leaving me as the last to know. Although, maybe he'd told her in the time I'd been late. In which case, totally my fault. Don't be salty, Adams. You're above all that.

I raised an eyebrow at John.

He took a breath. "It said, 'I still don't know which of us is the machine'." He looked at me, that look of pain still poignant in his eyes. "I have to find her. It's her. I know it is. Not some rampant shadow of who she was. It's her."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Okay, we'll get her back. And do whatever it takes to do that." I paused, then decided to add, "Who else have you told this to?"

"No one." They both said, in unison.

"Are you sure?" I asked, squinting at both of them.

"Yes." They both said, again in unison.

"Well, that's funny." I said, as I folded my arms and leaned back in my chair. "Because the UNSC just offered me a position as the head of medical personnel of a prestigious Spartan program. One in a facility that's very remote. Like, very far away from everything. So, you know. I just had to ask."

Vale looked horrified, and I saw John's eyelid twitch.

"They must have gotten wind of the message." Vale breathed, throwing a look around the bar.

"Yeah, you think?" I retorted. I drank the rest of the bottle of wine that Sal had given me. "So what is this thing you want to ask me?" I said, a little louder than necessary. I was rewarded with a confirmation of my suspicions when I saw both the Sangheili warriors at the bar glance over at me.

Vale glared at me. "Lower your voice, you raging idiot."

"Sorry." I whispered loudly, mostly just to spite her.

She rolled her eyes.

John laid a hand over mine. I glanced over and saw both the Sangheili twitch. Chill, dudes. We don't have that kind of relationship.

"I need you to create a diversion." He said. "Give me some time to get to Genesis without the UNSC following."

I shook my head. "So, basically, you're going to go AWOL a second time, but since the UNSC is still watching you, you need me to create a distraction that's big enough that they completely forget about you." I closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair. "You realize that's a move that may end up getting me court martialed, or worse."

Vale looked away, and straight up just chugged what was left of her fifth drink.

John gripped my hand, tightly. "Kasey." He said, his voice thick. "I wouldn't ask you to do this unless it was everything to me."

I moved my hand and gripped his hand back. "I know. And I know how important she is to you. And I know that you have to do this. Trust me, I know." I looked at him, really looked at him, and saw the myriad of emotion in his eyes. "John, I'm your friend. And being your friend means that I'm willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to make sure you're happy. And I know you can't be happy unless you have her, the real her." I sighed. "So I'll do it. I'll create some kind of diversion that makes whatever you're doing seem like a walk in the park."

John leaned forward and wrapped both his arms around me. "Kasey, you have no idea how much this means to me."

"I think I do." I said, quietly, leaning my head against his. In some ways, he was still that idealistic child that was forced into the Spartan program. His sense of right and wrong. His sense of loyalty. His conviction that the people he cared about were far more important than a military organization. And that was one of the things I loved about him. That he was someone who would go to hell and back for the people he cared about. No matter what it took, if he cared for you, he would come for you. There wasn't anyone in this galaxy who could care for you the way he would care for you. He was one of the most selfless people I'd ever known, and he had answered the call to defend planets he'd never see and people he'd never know. If anyone deserved this kind of help, it was him. And if anyone else had asked me to risk my career and my life like this, I'd have said no. But it was John who was asking, and he was worth it.

I pulled back and put his hands on his shoulders. "I mean it. I'm with you. I'll do it. Go get her back."

He looked at me, a soft look in his eyes. "I don't know how to thank you."

"Thank me by bringing her home." I said, firmly.

I heard a noise, and turned to see the two Sangheili warriors getting up and leaving.

I took my hands off John's shoulders, turned back to the bar and grabbed the bottle of bullshit that Sal had given me. "Well, it was nice knowing you two."

Vale watched the two Sangheili leave. "Adams? What do you mean by that?" She said, her voice colored with suspicion.

I shook my head. "What I mean is, they were there when I came in. And now that we've gotten to the part of the conversation where I agree to do what you ask, they're leaving."

"But how did he know?" Vale demanded, punching my arm.

I rolled my eyes. "Vale, you came to talk to me literally minutes after I'd just left him. So it's not totally unrealistic to think that he had followed me and heard our conversation."

Vale groaned. "Goddamnit. That means we're in serious trouble."

I glanced towards the door. "Yeah. Unless I can manage to lie my way out of this."

"You'd lie to him?" Vale asked, looking at me like I'd grown a second head.

I shrugged. "Yeah. Yes, it's low, and yes, it's very wrong, but sometimes you have to do what you think is right and do the wrong thing to get there."

"That's some very, very shady morals you have there, Adams."

"I am aware. They're incredibly Machiavellian, but I stand by them."

"What are you going to do?" John asked, looking at me.

"I'm going to talk to him, obviously. But I'm also going to keep my promise to you. Which means that bad shit will probably go down, but I'm going to make sure it's all on me, and not on you. So don't worry about that." I told him.

I paid for my drinks, tipped Sal heavily (buying someone's silence is absolutely effective, anyone who says otherwise is lying out their ass), then turned to Vale and John. "You can count on me. Do what you need to. I'll soothe Thel's fears and do what I need to. Just get it done, okay? Don't make me do this for nothing." I leveled a look at John.

He nodded. "I can promise you it won't be for nothing."

"Good." I said. "It had better not be."

And then I left the Greasy Spoon, taking care to make sure I didn't kick the doors on the way out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author Note: NaNoWriMo kicked my butt. Hopefully I'll be back to a semi regular updating schedule. Maybe not, though, since I'm working to publish said NaNoWriMo novel. But I'll try not to leave you people hanging for too long.**

I walked down a narrow street, trying not to stagger. Maybe I couldn't handle alcohol as well as I thought, because I was really feeling that last drink. So when a large figure moved into my path, blocking me from going any further, the quick stop I'd have to make to avoid the large figure wasn't particularly well executed and I ended up running face first into the large figure.

"Whoa there, big guy." I said, putting a hand out to steady myself. My arm was grabbed by the figure in front of me, who turned out to be Thel. It really hadn't taken him long to show up. It was almost like he'd been waiting just outside the bar for his Sangheili narcs to tell him what was going on.

Unfortunately, due to my rather high blood alcohol content, I wasn't as good at losing people as I usually was. So he'd managed to follow me. I really shouldn't have had that last drink.

"Kasey Adams." Thel said, his deep voice stern. "Would you like to inform me what it is you and your companions are up to?"

I swayed slightly as I thought about my answer. He'd called me Kasey. And Adams. Which meant that he really meant business. So I had to be particularly careful about my answer. My intoxicated brain put it's rusty gears into motion. Then, I beckoned him closer with one hand. He leaned down, close to my face, and I put my cheek against his, feeling his warmth.

"WE'RE GOING TO GET CORTANA BACK!" I shouted.

He pulled back quickly, and I saw him wince. He then shook his head, with the incredible measure of patience that was his greatest virtue, and said, "That, I know. What I am asking is how, exactly, you intend to divert the UNSC's attention from what it is those two are planning to do."

I folded my arms, swaying again slightly, trying not to giggle like an idiot at the completely juvenile move I'd just pulled on him. I really hated that my motor functions were the first thing to go. I could think just fine, but it was like the connection between my brain and my body was completely shot. "Well, I haven't figured that out yet. I have some ideas, though." I told him, being completely honest in that regard.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "And what are these ideas of yours?" He asked, intentionally ignoring the fact that I was sloppy drunk, once again. At least I wasn't puking this time. You can't win them all, but sometimes you have to be grateful for the little things.

I thought for a moment. What would a reasonable person with no intention of getting court martialed come up with? Man, that was difficult. Doing things that would end badly was literally my greatest talent. In fact, I'm not sure I even knew how to do something that wouldn't end badly. But I wasn't going to tell him some of my actual ideas, because, obviously, he wouldn't be a fan of me doing something that would end very badly. The last time I had done something that was certain to end badly, specifically, attempted to kill my own father, I'd almost died. This time, the consequences were worse. Yes, there are things worse than death. Being labeled a traitor to the UNSC is one of them. Being assigned to an administrative position is another. The power of an administrative position appealed to me, for sure, but the amount of paperwork definitely didn't. Plus, it's boring. And the boredom and paperwork far outweigh any satisfaction that comes from having administrative power. Few things are worse than being in administration. Even death was preferable to administration. Other things worse than death include having to explain a concept to someone more than four times, one of Ewing's farts, weak coffee and having to talk about my feelings. On a scale of death to having to talk about my feelings, being labeled a traitor to the UNSC ranked somewhere in the middle. So it was a risk I was willing to take. Of course, the fact that I had some ideas that could definitely cause my death if executed improperly was just a small consequence of executing said idea. I mean, dying would suck. Not just for me, but for the people I cared about. But they'd move on, eventually. It's not like Thel and I could make this thing last forever. Bloodlines were incredibly important on Sanghelios, and I was definitely not in the selection pool for him to propogate his bloodline with, so really, I was making the choice easier if I ended up dying. I knew that he'd already refused any and all recommendations to further his bloodline with some choice Sangheili females out of loyalty to me, even though I'd expressed to him that it didn't bother me. It really didn't bother me, from a rational standpoint. He was a prime specimen of both brains and brawn, and having offspring with quality Sangheili females would really do wonders for not only his legacy, but the Sangheili as a whole. What bad could come from several mini Thel 'Vadams running around on Sanghelios? But on the other hand, it also really gave me some negative feelings that I refused to acknowledge and work through because dealing with feelings in a healthy manner isn't my style. He didn't know I knew about the recommendations. He'd never said anything, because in his mind, he was committed, and why mention something you're not even considering. But I'd found out. Granted, I'd found out by nefarious and underhanded means because I'd had suspicions and wanted to confirm those suspicions and thus stroke my own ego in being right about my suspicions because I can't resist the occasional ego boost, and I hadn't told him I knew about the very strong suggestions that he further his bloodline. I didn't know who those doing the deciding (it was generally a matriarchial responsibility to carefully calculate bloodlines to provide for optimum furthering of choice genetic material, so I'd had some guesses, but they hadn't given me any information I'd wanted-probably a smart choice) had picked for him to procreate with, but I knew that Sangheili took the bloodline thing very seriously, but I had some theories about who they'd picked, and if I was right, it was hard to argue with the decision. Which is why I'd decided that if the subject came up between us, I'd tell him I was okay with it, even though I wasn't fully okay with it. In my opinion, raging jealousy isn't a reason to tell someone not to do something that makes sense. I may have a lot of flaws, but being petty isn't one of them.

Actually, that's wrong. Being petty is one thing I'm really great at being, but not when it comes to romantic relationships. I'll be petty fucking spaghetti all day long, but not when it comes to Thel. Okay, well, maybe sometimes I'd be petty spaghetti with him, but not if it was an issue that genuinely caused him distress. Only if it was something that didn't really matter. Like him being right about something that I'd specifically told him he was wrong about. But who isn't petty about that stuff?

I guess I took a long time in deciding what to tell him one of my ideas was, because he leaned forward slightly. "What ideas, Khase?"

I forced myself to think of an answer. It still wasn't coming. But then, I had it. "Well, they offered me that new assignment, right? What if I end up submitting so many strange and vaguely idiotic drafts for changes to the program that they're so busy trying to go through all my ridiculous proposals that they don't notice John and Vale have suspiciously disappeared?"

Thel's expression was one of someone who was incredibly unimpressed, and incredibly skeptical. "You would use bureaucracy to help your cause? That does not sound like you."

I shrugged. "Maybe I've decided to play their game the way it's meant to be played. With red tape."

"You have never played any game the way it is meant to be played. Ever. In your life. Not once."

I squinted at him. "Chill. We don't need to revisit the past, especially not if it concerns me being a little shit. Maybe I've grown up. Maybe I've matured. Maybe I've realized that the smartest way to get what you want is to play by the rules."

"I doubt it."

I put my hands on my hips and gave him a sour look. "It's nice to know someone believes in my ability to mature."

He folded his arms. "I have no doubt that you have the ability to mature, I doubt that you have the desire to do so."

I considered this for a moment. "That's fair."

"I thought so." He shifted his weight, and glared down at me. "You will not do anything rash, or idiotic, or anything that might put your personal safety and career in jeopardy, will you?"

I shook my head. "Of course not." I was going to hell for being a liar. I was straight up going to hell. And it was because I was a goddamn liar. Kasey Adams, MD. A brilliant doctor, and a shameless liar. That was me.

"Good. Because if you do anything that could classify as treason, I will not be able to protect you. I cannot allow you to hide on Sanghelios. You know that, right?"

I sighed and looked at the tall Sangheili. "I know that. I would never ask you to do that, because I know you can't do that. You have an alliance to maintain. The Sangheili and the UNSC have an agreement, and I wouldn't expect you to do anything to put that in jeopardy."

He frowned at me, as best as a Sangheili can frown. "You say that like you're planning to do something that would classify as treason."

Whoops. Come on, Adams. Get it together. You're not supposed to let on that you're going to do something that could classify as treason.

I shook my head. "No, I'm not. John and Vale would never ask me to do that." They would. They just did. But it wasn't like it was for a bad reason, it was for a very, very good reason, a reason that I was willing to risk committing treason for. "But in the event that I ever did something that could be classified as treason, I wouldn't ask you to protect me as a fugitive. Never. I'm not that kind of person."

Thel sighed. "I know you are not. But you worry me, sometimes. The lengths you will go to for those you care for are lengths that often put yourself at risk. And this I know from personal experience. You almost gave your life for the sake of mine, and I will not allow you to do that again."

I reached out and took his hand. "Thel. I knew what I was doing. And I'd do it again, in a heartbeat."

He pulled his hand away and gripped my upper arms. "Khase, I know you would. But I won't allow you to put yourself in that position again. What kind of person am I to allow the woman I love to endanger her life for my sake?"

I slid my hands onto his forearms. "The kind of person who recognizes that the woman you love would do anything to keep you safe, and who would allow her that."

He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. "No, I would not allow you that."

I shrugged slightly. "Which is okay, because I'd do it whether you allowed me to or not. I've never needed another person's permission to do what I know is the right thing." And I meant that. If I know it's the right thing to do, to hell with getting someone's permission. You shouldn't need permission to do what you know is right."

He pulled me into a gentle, yet tight embrace. "Don't do anything that could put you at risk. That's all I ask."

I decided to choose my next words carefully. "I promise you that I won't do anything to put my physical safety at risk." Man, even that was a promise I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep.

He ran a hand down my hair. "Good."

I pulled back. "I have to go. I have a UNSC offer to respond to."

His eyes took on a brooding expression. "I hope you think long and hard about whether that position is a good thing for you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, my brow wrinkling slightly in confusion.

"You are a fighter, Khase. You have always been a fighter. You are the kind of person who can keep her head when everyone else around her is losing theirs. I am not convinced that a position where there is no crisis is what is right for you. As much as I long to see you in a place where your safety is guaranteed, I know that is not what you desire. So I simply ask that you take some time to consider whether the new position is something you really want."

I nodded. "I can do that."

"Good." He released me and started to walk away, then stopped. He turned to face me. "Khase 'Nradaman, did you know that I love you?"

I couldn't keep the laugh from bursting out of me. "I kind of figured you did. And I hope you've figured out by now that I love you."

A smile of sorts put itself on his face. "I have indeed figured that out."

"Good. I don't know how I can make it any more obvious." I muttered.

"Go back to your ship, Khase."

"Yes sir, Kaidon."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

First of all, I'm lying trash. What I was going to do would definitely put me in physical danger, would probably put me on the UNSC "Most Wanted" list of dispicable traitors, and would do significant damage to my career. It would most likely obliterate my career altogether. Sometimes I wished I was a stone cold bitch who never needed the company of other people, and could therefore tell them they and their requests of my help could shove said requests where the sun don't shine, but I'm not that person. I'm the exact opposite. I'm the person who'll risk life and limb to help someone if they really need it, and if I really cared about them. Except I pretend I'm a stone cold bitch. If I hadn't decided to be a doctor, I'd like to think my chances at acting would've been superb. But the fact that I'm the kind of person who will do pretty much anything those who I care about ask me to do is probably my biggest flaw.

Aside from the drinking. And the fact that I'm an asshole. And the part where I do things without thinking them through. And that I'm not concerned with the consequences for my actions. And that I'm a liar. But whatever.

But I wasn't about to spend too much time thinking about my biggest character flaws, because that doesn't get you anywhere other than spiraling into a deep depression about how terrible of a human being you are, and I didn't have time for that right now. I had to create a diversion. That, and taking time to list all my flaws would probably take a long, long time. I had a lot of flaws. But like I said, I didn't have time to waste listing my flaws. That could wait for a therapy session I would never go to.

Which is why I was back on the Infinity seeking the help of Captain Lasky. I figured he'd be a great person to rope into this little scheme because he'd helped the Chief before at the risk of losing his job, his life, his career, etc. What's to say that he wouldn't do it again, especially if his ability to help wouldn't require him to risk anything?

I wished I'd given a more tender goodbye to Thel, though. After I did what I was about to do to help out John and Vale, there was no telling whether I'd ever see him again or not. I guess I could classify that as my one regret in this whole thing. That I hadn't really told him goodbye. At least, not in the way I'd wanted to. There had been so many things I'd wanted to say to him. Like to tell him to stay strong, to do what it took to take Sanghelios back to it's former glory, without being dependent on the Prophets. That he had what it took to be the leader Sanghelios needed. That he deserved to succeed in everything he undertook. That he deserved to be loved. That he was incredible, and strong, and just. That he had people who would always stand with him. That kind of thing. But he'd have gotten suspicious if I'd told him all that, so I'd refrained. I guess it was just a regret I'd have to live with. Maybe I'd write him a note. Less meaningful than saying it in person, but sometimes you have to adjust things to fit the circumstances.

I'd contacted Vale and John before I reached the Infinity, letting them know their diversion was about to go down, and that they needed to move, and move fast. I didn't know what their end of the plan entailed, but in the grand scheme of things, it was probably better that I didn't know. No need for them to be affected by what I was going to do. As far as I knew, they were heading out to do whatever it was they were going to do. All I had to do was do what they asked me to. Create a diversion. Which is what I was about to do, right here, right now, on the Infinity.

I found Lasky on the bridge, alone, with Roland. It was "night" on the Infinity, which meant that it was the scheduled sleeping time for all personnel, save those who were assigned to night shift. But the ship was mostly dead, regardless.

Lasky didn't notice I'd walked onto the bridge. I stood in the shadows of the large, dark room for a moment, debating whether or not to say something and scare the shit out of him, or wait for him to notice me and scare the shit out of him.

I decided on the former.

"Lasky." I said, from the dark corner I was standing in. In retrospect, it probably would've been better to just crash my way into the bridge and start yelling, but considering the fact that I was about to do something I'd never done before and had never even thought of doing before, I hadn't been sure how to go about it. So I'd opted for sneaking in and standing in a dark corner. Only natural.

He jumped. Which wasn't surprising, considering I had been lurking in a goddamn dark corner for a solid five minutes.

"Adams?" Lasky said, looking at me with blatant confusion.

I ignored him for a moment, and waved a hand at Roland. "Go away, Roland. I need to talk to him alone."

Roland just looked at me. "Sorry. We're in the middle of something far more important than whatever it is you want to talk to him about."

I shot him a look. "Uh, you don't know that."

"I'm pretty sure I do."

"Hey, Roland? I don't like your attitude."

"Look at that. The feeling is mutual."

"Feel free to fuck off."

"You first."

I opened my mouth to give a blistering reply, but was cut short by Lasky sighing. "Roland. Adams. Anytime you two would like to quit harping on each other, I'll be happy to hear you both out."

"He can't be here, though." I said, leveling a glare at the AI. I'd deliver that blistering reply at some point. Mark my words. Treason or not, I'd deliver that blistering reply.

"He has to be here. It's regulation. Anytime I'm on the bridge alone, he has to be here. To prevent anything bad from happening." Lasky told me. "I'm sorry."

I sighed, and rolled my eyes towards the ceiling. "Alright. Then I guess I'll just have to work around it."

Lasky frowned. "What do you mean?"

I pulled the classic, standard issue gun off my back. "I'm taking you and the bridge."

Lasky's reaction was completely uninspiring. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, bowing his head. "Adams. Why." It wasn't even a question. It was a statement. He was so vastly unimpressed that he wasn't even asking me why I was doing this. He was just reacting with irritation, like I wasn't serious about this.

Roland's reaction was even less inspiring. He laughed. "Right. You. Taking this ship and it's captain hostage."

"Shut up, Roland. This is exactly why I wanted you to leave, goddamnit." I growled, raising the weapon at Lasky. Then I fired it into the console that Roland was occupying. His image flickered slightly, and then Roland looked at me like I'd started licking doorknobs.

Lasky looked at me in disbelief, finally starting to realize I was serious. "Are you insane? Why are you doing this? What is wrong with you?"

I sighed. "What's wrong with me? I tend to go above and beyond to help out a friend. That's what's wrong with me."

Lasky still didn't look afraid, the way one should look when one's ship is being taken hostage by a crazy doctor. "What do you mean?"

I shifted the weapon in my hands. "What I mean is that the Chief is on his way to respond to a message from Cortana, the real Cortana, and I'm supposed to create a diversion to make sure the UNSC is too busy to keep tabs on him and what he's doing. So, naturally, I decided to take their biggest and most important ship and it's captain hostage."

Roland and Lasky both stared at me for a good long minute.

I shifted. "What?" I demanded.

"He what? You what? Are you serious?" Lasky said, his voice going up a couple octaves.

"Yes. He what, I what, and I'm serious." I sighed again. "Roland, can you please just send a distress call to whoever needs to know that I've taken the ship hostage? Oh, and let them know that I destroyed the door to the bridge so no one can get in. Not without proper cutting tools, at least. And if they do, I'll shoot Lasky."

Lasky looked betrayed. "You'll shoot me? Why!?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because I'm taking the ship hostage to create a diversion. Seriously. How many times do I have to explain this?"

Roland raised an eyebrow at me. "Okay. I'll send the message. But you should know that once it's out, you're pretty much screwed."

"I'm aware." I told him.

"No, Roland. Don't." Lasky ordered.

"Do it, Roland." I growled.

"No, Roland. That's an order." Lasky said, his voice going into that commanding voice he always ordered his staff around with. "Adams, put the gun down. Don't do this. Put it down, walk away, and we'll pretend this never happened. You're throwing away your career and possibly your life over this."

I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them again. "You risked all that, once. I'm doing the same thing."

Lasky shook his head. "The worst I could've been hit with was insubordination. This is treason."

I took a deep breath. "I know."

Lasky shook his head again, looking at me with those soulful eyes. "What about Thel, Adams?"

I took a step back, unwillingly, like someone had pushed me. "Don't throw that at me, Lasky. Roland, send the message." I said, my voice becoming rough, unlike the way I usually spoke.

"Adams-" Lasky said, stepping forward.

"DO IT, ROLAND!" I yelled, pointing the gun at Lasky.

Lasky stopped, and Roland shook his head. "No. You're insane."

"Yeah. I am." I murmured, then pointed the gun at Lasky's leg. "Send the message. I'm serious."

"No you're not-" Roland started to say.

He didn't get the chance to finish, because I fired the gun into Lasky's upper leg.

He dropped to the floor, making a gutteral noise of pain.

I fixed my gaze on Roland. "I just made a declaration of intending to take your captain hostage, and now I just shot him. Send the message."

Roland looked horrified. "Adams. Why would-"

"Send it!" I shouted.

"He's going to bleed out!" Roland shouted back.

"For fuck's sake, Roland. I'm a fucking doctor. Jesus. He's going to be fine. I brought pain meds with me. It's a flesh wound. Holy shit. Just send the goddamned message before I punch my way through the console!" I shouted at him.

Lasky grunted out something that sounded like, "I hate you so much, Adams."

Roland went to say something, then stopped. "Okay. I'll send it." His avatar disappeared from the console.

I moved to Lasky's side, and lifted the medical bag I'd brought with me off my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I hope you know I'm doing this for the greater good." I stabbed Lasky with a syringe of a strong painkiller. "Just know that you're not going to die, and if you end up wounded, you'll get some quality medical care." 

Lasky grunted out a shaky laugh that was affected by the pain he was obviously in. "Adams, while I don't blame you for doing this, and to a certain extent, I admire your resolve in taking a UNSC ship hostage, if you shoot me again, I will plant my fist in your face with as much force as I can. This hurts."

I looked him. He looked equal parts shocked, amused and an incredulous. "You know what, sir? When this is all over, come find me. I'll let you punch me in the face as many times as it takes for you to feel better. I probably owe you that."

Lasky shook his head and let out another shaky laugh. "Goddamn you, Adams. I hope you know what you're doing."

I sat back on my knees and threw a look towards the ceiling. "I know exactly what I'm doing-I'm doing something that will most definitely end badly."


	6. Chapter 6

Author Note: This chapter is pathetically short, but hopefully full enough of snappy dialogue to satisfy. I gave up on this story for a bit because the character of Khase Adams and the other OC's from the first story were carried over into the book I'm writing because goddamn they're such great characters. So it's hard to write for Khase Adams, because she became Khasee Aiden and is, you know, part of a completely different universe. I got the plot for this story all figured out though, so it'll get finished. But it'll take a while, since I'm working on a different, longer, more complex story with literally the exact same character. Anyway, there's the update on both this story and the reason that I dropped off the face of the earth. Please enjoy the absolute savagery that Roland brought to this obnoxiously short chapter.

"Okay, so I modified the message a little bit." Roland said, his avatar reappearing and flickering slightly.

I had finished dressing Lasky's gunshot wound and was about to give him some strong ass painkillers, but Roland's statement stopped me. "What? Why? How did you modify it?"

Lasky grabbed my arm. "Give me the goddamn painkillers, Adams."

I waved him off. "In a second. Roland, what do you mean?"

Roland shifted and put his hands behind his back. "Well, I sent out a distress signal saying that someone had taken the Captain hostage. Not the ship. But the Captain."

"But WHY?" I almost shouted.

"Because you need to take him and get out of here. You can't barricade yourself in here. They'll get through in no time, and you'll be screwed when they do. Take the Captain, go down to the loading bay, get on a ship and get out of here. Go somewhere far away for a while. Leave him somewhere he'll get found eventually, and disappear." Roland said, with a certain harshness in his voice.

I squinted at him. "Why would I do that?"

Lasky grunted. "Give me the pain killer, and I'll tell you why. As we walk to the loading bay."

I glanced at him, then quickly did what he asked. "Okay, now tell me why we're going to do that."

Roland facepalmed. "I genuinely wonder how she survived past infancy, sometimes."

I flipped him off. "Fuck you."

Roland made a different rude gesture back. "You wish."

"You two are getting on my last nerve. Honestly." Lasky growled, getting up slowly, to his feet, as the pain meds did their magic.

Lasky gestured at me. "Barricading yourself in here won't be a lasting distraction. They'll cut through the door and shoot you on sight. It'll be over, and they'll be free to go find the Chief. But if you take me and get the hell out of here and we hide out somewhere, they'll have to come look for me and that'll take a significant amount of manpower away from whoever they send after the Chief." He gestured at the door. "Let's move."

I shook my head. "Now I regret shooting you in the leg."

"I hope so!"

"What I mean is that I should've shot you in the arm. I'm probably going to have to carry you at some point."

"What do you mean at some point?"

"When I run out of pain killers."

"Are you serious!?"

"Uh...I might be."

"Honestly, Adams!"

"Will you two just go?" Roland shouted, throwing his hands at the door. "Go, for fuck's sake!"

"Why are you guys helping me?" I demanded, grabbing Lasky's arm and throwing it over my shoulder to help him walk.

"Because you're helping the Chief. And you've basically covered my ass. And we're friends, and I don't really want to see you get shot for treason." Lasky muttered. "But ask me again when you're out of pain killers."

"I'll pass on that."

"Personally, I'm curious to see how all this pans out. That's why I'm helping. But yeah, friends, the Chief, don't get shot, all that." Roland said, shrugging.

"Thanks. Asshole."

"So you're shooting people, but I'm the asshole?"

I opened my mouth for another blistering retort but didn't get the chance as Lasky started limping towards the door, dragging my ass with him.

"I'll respond to that eventually!" I managed to shout as Lasky dragged me through the door I had completely forgotten to actually disable.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I threw Lasky unceremoniously into the back end of a Pelican. "Don't move."

"Oh, of course. It's not like I got shot in the leg a few minutes ago."

I half turned to say some shit, then decided against it. I sat in the pilot seat of the Pelican and stared at the console. "I have no fucking idea how to fly this."

"How is that possible?"

"While you learned how to fly shitty rust buckets like this, I was learning literally every part of the human body and thousands of ways to treat any illness or injury and learning to do it with style. Get out of here with your condescending bullshit."

Lasky rolled his eyes and dragged himself to the cockpit. "Get out of my way, Adams." I moved slightly and ran into him, knocking him off balance, and he grabbed my upper arms to stay upright. We grappled for a moment until he pushed me into the passenger seat and fell into the pilot's seat. "Goddamnit, Adams."

I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender.

Lasky glared at me. He put the Pelican into gear. "Okay. Next stop, whatever the hell the nearest planet is." He threw a look back to me. "So what's the next part of your plan?"

I winced. "Well, my plan never really went beyond barricading myself in the bridge of the Infinity."

Lasky growled out some choice profanity. "So you shoot me in the leg and now you expect me to come up with a plan too?"

"I expect nothing from you than to shut the fuck up and let me think!"

"Oh yes, because thinking has done so well for you so far."

"I swear to god I'm going to throw you out of the back of this fucking Pelican."

"No you won't. Because if you do that, there's no one to fly this and you'll end up floating off into space, drifting, until you die of dehydration or, perhaps, choking to death on your own bullshit."

I jabbed a finger at him. "Okay, that was a good one. I'll give you that."

"Thanks." Lasky fired the thrusters on the Pelican, but backwards, so I fell forward and hit my face on the dashboard thing.

"Fucking FUCK Lasky I shit fucking swear to GOD-"

"On a scale of one to 'getting shot in the fucking leg', how much did that hurt?"

"I'm really going to enjoy that part about dropping you off on some godforsaken planet and letting the UNSC have you. What's that wasteland planet Tanaka is from? The one that got completely glassed? That sounds like a great place to drop you off."

Lasky gave me a disgusted look. "Anytime you're done talking shit, I'd be happy to help brainstorm a plan."

I squinted at him. "Your part of the plan is pretty much over once I throw you out of this trash can of a vehicle."

Lasky sighed. "I meant, what are you going to do once you've done that? What's your plan? Turn yourself in and go straight to a horrific military prison?"

I leaned back in the chair. "Well, there's that. There's also disappearing, changing my name and my face and living another life."

Lasky threw a glance at me as he maneuvered the Pelican out into open space. "Both of those options means you lose." His gaze became one of concern. "Specifically, you lose Thel."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know. But what else am I supposed to do?" I shook my head. "I just fuck things up for him anyway. He's refraining from furthering his superior bloodline because of me and god knows I'm not fit to raise any fuck trophies."

"Fuck trophies. Nice."

"Blow me."


	7. Chapter 7

Lasky maneuvered the Pelican out into open space. While I'd been busy dragging Lasky the seventeen thousand miles from the bridge to the hangar, Roland had sent the ship into a slipspace jump, and we were just outside the atmosphere of some planet. Which planet? Fuck if I knew.

"What planet is this?" Lasky asked, sounding vaguely concerned.

"Fuck if I know." I said, staring at the planet as the Pelican descended through the atmosphere.

"Where do I even land this thing?" Lasky shook his head.

"Somewhere populated, hopefully."

He tossed me a disgusted look. "Obviously. But there has to be docking protocol, right? We need to get permission or something."

I picked up the radio. "I'll get us permission."

"Adams, that's a terrible-"

"This is a Pelican, requesting permission to land at the closest thing to land on, I'm a doctor and I have a patient who was recently shot in the leg." I waited for a response, but all I got was static.

I waited for about a minute, then repeated my message.

Still nothing.

"Oh my god, will someone pick up the damn radio and answer me? Are you all out to lunch? Taking a shit? Do you not have radios? Are you too stupid to operate them? I'm trying to politely ask to land on this godforsaken planet and you fucks are all blowing me off like I'm a fucking door to door vacuum salesman, will someone somewhere just fucking answer me and tell me where the fuck to land this goddamned Pelican!" I shouted into the radio.

"Oh, great. Now they're going to shoot us out of the sky because you're being an asshole." Lasky muttered.

"Literally no one asked you."

My tried and true tactic of raging aggression must have worked because the radio finally crackled to life with a voice that sounded as equally irritated as I was. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, calm down already. I was doing something more important than answering you. Head southeast from your position and you'll see something to land on and you can land there." It was a guy. He sounded like he was around my ripe old age of twenty three.

"Thanks bro, I appreciate it. Also, could you tell me what planet this even is? I have no idea." I said into the radio.

"Yeah, this is Terceira. You're landing on-oh, shit." The guys stopped talking.

Dead air crackled softly from the radio.

Lasky and I traded looks. "I don't like the sound of that." Lasky said, his eyebrows furrowing. "I really don't like the sound of that."

I stared nervously out the window of the Pelican. Lasky didn't seem to know what it meant for us to be landing on Terceira. I knew what that guy's "oh shit" had been about. We were approaching the landing platform, and he could probably see that we were in a UNSC Pelican, which was really not a good thing to be flying when landing on Terceira.

Terceira was bad news for anyone UNSC. It was a planet that had ended up becoming a home to the new Insurrectionist movement after the Covenant War, a planet filled with rebels and rebel sympathizers. The UNSC responded very violently to the rebels on this planet, and naturally, the Terceirans didn't appreciate that at all. It was a blood bath. Probably the worst UNSC/Insurrectionist battle that had happened. Eventually the entire planet was seized by the United Rebel Front and the UNSC lost all control of the planet. But I could guarantee there were still some hard feelings against the UNSC on this planet.

And I had the captain of the UNSC's biggest starship with me.

Shit.

"Lasky." I said, slowly. "Take off your uniform shirt."

"What?" He asked, staring at me like I was insane.

"I'm serious. You need to listen to me. Take off the shirt." I said, my tone flat, meeting his eyes with an unwavering gaze to let him know I meant business.

His eyes still held a question, but he slowly obeyed, unbuttoning his uniform shirt and discarding it. He was left in a plain black tshirt that he wore under his uniform. I frowned. It was still too obvious that he was in a uniform that belonged to someone highly ranked in the UNSC.

"You know what?" I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Take off your pants too."

"Adams, I'm flattered, but I'm not taking off my pants unless you give me an extremely good reason to." Lasky snarked at me.

"And here I thought my feverish desire would be a good enough reason." I snarked back. Then I got serious. "Lasky. We're about to dock on Terceira. This planet is home to one of the largest Insurrectionist movements in the entire galaxy. The UNSC slaughtered rebels on this planet. It's under the control of the United Rebel Front. You're in a UNSC officer's uniform. Roland has absolutely fucked us to the highest degree, and if you're wearing that uniform, you're a walking target. Things worse than death could happen to you." I gestured at him. "Take off your pants."

Lasky sighed. "I'm still flying this thing. You're going to have to help me."

I stared at him in disbelief. "Help you? Are you fucking serious? You want me to take your pants off for you?"

Lasky made a noise of disgust. "I'm not thrilled with the situation either, but I'm flying a damn ship and I was SHOT IN THE LEG, which means I'm not exactly capable of taking my pants off before we land!"

"Fine!" I said, exasperatedly.

My day was going wonderfully. I had lied to the love of my life, committed treason, shot a friend in the wrong appendage and now I was going to take off the pants of a UNSC starship captain and drag him onto an Insurrectionist planet in his fucking underwear. I'd learned my lesson. Never cause a diversion unless you carefully plan it ahead of time, because if you don't, you'll end up committing treason and someone will end up in their underwear.

Lasky struggled to land the Pelican on the platform as I struggled to take his pants off. I wasn't very good at taking anyone's pants off. Thel aways polite enough to take off his own pants, as well as mine, and taking pants off a patient in a combat situation usually meant just cutting them off.

Lasky jumped as I finally started yanking them off. "What?" I demanded, pulling harder on the stupid pants.

"You touched my dick!" He yelped, wiggling his legs to try to help me get them off faster, but all he did was make it harder to pull them off.

"Oh my god, stop making this weirder than it already is!" I hissed, grappling with the stupid pants. "And stop fucking moving!"

"I'm making it weird? You're the one who touched my junk!"

"Christ Lasky, you jumped like I stuck my finger up your asshole, you're the one making this weird!"

"Your hands are all over-"

Our spat was interrupted by the radio crackling to life again. The guy sounded stressed this time. "So, uh, you can't land here."

I fumbled with the radio. "Yeah, too fucking late for that. Shoot us out of the sky or don't, we're still landing here." Don't tell me what I can and can't do, random radio man.

I heard what sounded like a laugh come over the radion. "No, I mean you can't LAND here. You have to crash the ship thing."

I blinked. "Uh...I'm sorry, what?"

"Crash the ship. Trust me, it'll make things better for you. Crash the ship."

Lasky, who was now clad in his black tshirt and a stylish looking pair of flannel print boxers that I had thanked every deity I could think of that they weren't an old pair of tighty whities, shrugged. "If that's what he wants, then I guess we'll do it." Lasky glanced at me. "Its your turn to take your uniform off."

Oh my god. We were both going to leave the Pelican in our underwear. This day just kept getting better.

"Would you mind waiting until after I've disrobed to crash the Pelican?" I grunted, unbuttoning my uniform shirt.

"Of course. Would you like me to return the favor and help you take your pants off?" Lasky threw the Pelican into a wild spiral.

I fell back against the passenger seat as I threw my uniform shirt over the top of the seat, the motion of the Pelican sending it straigh back onto me, and I struggled with it for a brief second. "Oh, yeah sure, knock yourself out, I wouldn't even mind if you touched my dick in the process."

"Fuck you, Adams."

"Hard pass." I whipped off my pants and threw them on the floor. Thank god I'd had the vaguely psychic foresight to wear a pair of boxers myself, and not like a thong. The thought of walking onto the surface of a hostile Insurrectionist planet simultaneously amused and terrified me. All the exposed ass would make things very, very awkward, but maybe the shock value of all that exposed ass would've worked in my favor. Too bad I'd never know.

Lasky and I were going to crash a Pelican in matching black tshirts and complimenting boxers. What a beautiful moment in our friendship this was. A moment of bonding I'd never experienced in a friendship before, and one I was definitely never going to repeat in any other friendships. No thank you.

The Pelican hit the docking platform. It was like falling off a building then getting hit by a freight train, then being hit with four baseball bats.

I was thrown out of my seat and against the front window, which shattered on impact. Lasky had put on his seatbelt but was still wildly whipped about as the Pelican started to roll.

Shit. I was not in a good position.

I grabbed one of the metal frames of the front window and propelled my body through the openeing, managed to take an extremely off kilter step that was just enough to set me up to jump free of the Pelican as it rolled over. I hit the ground, hard, the wind getting knocked completely out of me as I rolled like the Pelican with the force of my own impact.

I laid on the cold cement, my chest heaving, my lungs completely unable to haul in any air, every inch of my body screaming in pain and the panic of not being able to breathe.

After what seemed like an eternity, two things happened. The first was I heard the Pelican creak as it came to a slow stop, and the second was that I was able to take a tiny, gasping breath.

As the air started to come back into my lungs, I was vaguely aware of someone approaching me, and then hands started to grab my body. Whoever was grabbing my ribcage, my forearms, my ankles, and various other body parts was talking and saying something my brain wasn't comprehending because I was still stunned from hitting the cement so hard.

I did a quick mental check and started to move my body. Nothing seemed broken. Bruised, absolutely. Maybe a cracked rib or two. But nothing else broken.

I slowly started to sit up and started slapping away the hands that were grabbing me. "I'm fine." I choked out, "I'm a doctor, I'm fine." I struggled to my feet.

"No, no, no. You need to sit back down, now. God, are you freaking insane? Why did you jump out of the ship!?" It was the same guy who I'd been talking to on the radio. I recognized his voice.

"Out of my way, I have to get-" I stopped. I couldn't say his last name, the guy might recognize it. He knew we were UNSC, but he didn't need to know who, exactly, Lasky was to the UNSC. "-Tom." I hastily spat out. "Tom's still in there."

I limped as fast as my gangly half Sangheili frame could carry me over towards the Pelican. "Tom!" I yelled as I got to the wreckage. "Tom, talk to me! Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not!" He said, practically whimpering.

My body went cold. Oh no. "What's wrong?" I shouted back, limping around the wreck, my heart pounding.

"Someone shot me in the leg!"

I swear to fucking god I was going to kill that man, mark my words.

Turning to the guy from the radio, who'd followed me over to the Pelican wreckage, I eyed him. He was tall, slightly taller than me, which put him at about 6'1". He had brown hair, green eyes, and there was something about him that looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "Come on, help me get him out of there."

I hoisted myself up onto the wreckage of the Pelican and saw Lasky squashed halfway between the seat and the console, upside down. I reached in through the window and gestured wildly. "Give me your arms, you petty piece of shit." I growled at Lasky,

"Only if you promise to crawl in here and grab those pain killers." He grunted, struggling to extricate his arms from the contortionist position the crash had left him in.

"I will, they're in my-" Oh, fuck. They were in my pocket. In the pocket of my UNSC uniform. The one I was no longer wearing. In the pocket of the thing that I couldn't mention, because if I did, the guy here would know that we hadn't arrived in our underwear and would definitely know something was up because no one crawls out of a Pelican crash in their goddamn underwear if they don't have something to hide, like UNSC uniforms that could get us something worse than dead on an Insurrectionist planet.

Lasky stared at me, and I gave him a wild eyed look, trying to communicate to him that if I finished the sentence that it would create a whole lot of suspicion that could lead to bad shit, like an awkward situation of having to explain why we willingly showed up in our underwear.

Turns out treason was the easiest and least awkward thing I'd done all day. This entire fiasco was really putting things into perspective.

Lasky hastily said something about him remembering I'd said I'd given him the last bit of painkillers on the way over, but the guy next to me interrupted him. "I have painkillers here somewhere, we'll get you something. But first we need to get you out of here."

The guy and I managed to extricate Lasky from the Pelican with no small amount of effort. He was a heavy dude, and I'd had enough dragging him around to last a lifetime.

Once Lasky was safe on the ground, I turned to the guy with us. "Who the fuck are you?" I all but demanded.

He really did look familiar. I felt like I'd seen his face before, but at the same time I'd never seen his face before.

He offered his hand. "I'm your welcoming party." He eyed the Pelican. "I just didn't know you'd be showing up in a very blatantly UNSC ship, so I had to improvise a little to dispel any suspicion." He looked both Lasky and I up and down, then his brow furrowed slightly. "Why are you both-"

"You know, there are some things in this life that can't be explained. And there are some things that shouldn't be explained. This is one of the only things that fits both those categories." Lasky said, waving a hand.

The guy mulled this over for a second, then inclined his head. "That's fair. I'm not really sure I want to know anyway."

He really didn't. There wasn't really a way to explain the underwear thing without explaining the starship captain thing without explaining the treason thing without explaining the Chief thing without explaining the Cortana thing without explaining the Guardians thing without explaining the...Let's just say I wasn't exactly willing to go through almost twenty years of history just to explain why two assholes showed up in their underwear.

"Anyway. Like I said, I'm your welcoming party." The guy said, gesturing to the two of us. "I was given a very brief explanation of a vague situation, which I'm hoping the two of you can eventually clarify." He then glanced at me. "I'm also supposed to tell you that this planet is probably your new home, as it's probably the only planet where you can seek asylum from the UNSC and be warmly welcomed."

What? How did he know I was going to need a planet to give me asylum for when the UNSC inevitably came looking for me? Who told him anything? I swear to god if it was Vale, I was going to risk being sent to prison to rot just to kick her in her perfectly augmented shins for being enough of a raging dunder head to tell someone. If it was the Chief who'd told him, I'd risk rotting in prison for the sake of finding him and giving him one of my signature Adams Kidney Punches, ones known for being particularly swift and painful, known for striking when the owner of the kidneys would least expect it.

I eloquently communicated my concerns to the strange man in front of me who knew too much. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, you're supposed to stay here with me, until your name gets cleared or until you die, whichever comes first, and you dying will definitely come first if you try to leave here." He gave a halfhearted smile. "That's what Chris said, at least."

I stared at him. "Chris?"

"Christy." He gave me a full smile. "I'm Danny Jamison, Christy Jamison's brother."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author Note: I've been watching a lot of Ghost Adventures lately and am wondering if there's a category for it on this site because what a wicked Supernatural crossover fic that would make.**

 **Anyway, here's another chapter. If you guys thought for one second I don't take ideas from reviews, I'll tell you right now I absolutely do, like I did with this chapter. You may want to be sitting down for the last part, or at least holding onto a solid piece of furniture.**

"You're fucking what?" I said, staring at the guy, who's name was apparently Danny, my mouth hanging open in the most undignified of fashions.

"I'm Christy's brother. You know-" He gestured. "Christy. Your teammate. Arguably your best friend. The one who saved your ass in basic."

"Okay, first of all-"

Lasky physically pushed my face aside and stepped forward to stop my bitching in it's tracks. "Yes, I know of her. I've met her before. Not to the degree that Adams clearly has, but I could pick her out of a lineup. What does she have to do with this, other than being your sister?"

Danny folded his arms. "Well, I think I'll just let her explain. Come on." He motioned with his head and began to walk towards a door that was a couple feet away that seemed to lead into the building we had crash landed on top of.

"Wait, are you telling-" My half assed sentence ended in a hiss as Lasky kicked me in the shin to shut me up. He kicked me. With his bad leg. The one I'd shot. I swear to god I was only giving him ibuprofen from now on if he was feeling good enough to fuckin kick me in my goddamn shin. Maybe I'd just knock him unconscious and save us both the hassle.

I got about ten steps towards the door and got bitch slapped by a wave of nausea. "Uh, hold on-" I called out towards the two of them.

Had I hit my head when I jumped out of the Pelican? My head didn't hurt. I didn't think I had a concussion, and being a doctor, I should be able to tell if I had one.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on not barfing.

My focus failed me, and I doubled over and threw up. Like projectile vomited. It was bad.

"Adams!" Lasky's voice called out, concern in his tone. He came over and grabbed my ponytail, lifting it out of the way. I appreciated the gesture, but I was basically done with the whole thing by the time he limped over there. "You okay? What's wrong? Did you hit your head?"

I spat on the ground. "No. Maybe it's stress barf."

Lasky dropped my ponytail, in what I could only assume was disgust from his tone of voice when he said, "Stress barf? That's not even a thing. "

"Sod off, asshole."

"Consider me sodded off. We'll be over there when you can stop barfing long enough to join us."

I straightened up my six foot mutant frame and gave him a thunderous glare. He didn't see it, because he was already limping back to join Danny at the doorway.

We walked through the door and made our way down what seemed like a thousand flights of stairs that left me feeling a little queasy again. Then again, I've never really gotten along with any flight of stairs.

We ended up in what looked like a massive bunker, complete with scattered weaponry, various tanks/ships and other post-apocalyptic looking equipment. It was like a bad dystopian movie came to life and shit all over the hangar.

Off to the side of the hangar/bunker/warehouse thing was a small office, and through the window we could see two people sitting in there, arguing.

It was Karl and Christy, in the flesh, existing in their constant state of arguing. About what? Who cares? I'd stopped listening to their arguments a long time ago.

They saw us approaching through the window and immediately ceased their arguing (thank god) and came out of the office thing.

Christy let out a shriek and attached herself to my torso as I staggered to try and maintain my balance. After she'd finally let go, Karl, who was nearly as tall as I was and had grown actual physical facial hair, gave me a more normal hug.

He then stepped back and squinted at me. "Wearing the latest UNSC fall collection, I see."

I'd completely forgotten I was still in my underwear. "Something like that. I look better in it than he does, though." I said, jabbing a finger over at Lasky, trying to get the reaction I was looking for out of him.

I got the reaction I was looking for as Ewing started to turn as pink as a juicy rare steak. "I'm sure you do." He mumbled, throwing a look at the ceiling.

I widened my eyes and stared at him. "You're not going to compare? Assess the differences? Casually slide your gaze over the two of us, resting your eyes on the most important parts, feasting on the sight of us?"

Karl gave me a look that was half disgusted, half judgmental. "No thanks, eye fucking isn't one of my kinks."

"Does your boyfriend not boyfriend know that?"

"Probably not, since I haven't seen the Arbiter in a while." He shot back, with all the savagery I'd come to know and love.

I opened my mouth to throw back some serious shade but was interrupted by Christy. "Before you two start getting really gross again, don't you want to know what's up?"

I shrugged. "I assumed that you were here to tell me your goodbyes before I ended up rotting away forever in a dark, damp UNSC prison surrounded by the screams of other agonized souls who also committed treason."

"You're a fucking trip sometimes, Adams, you know that?" Christy shook her head. "No, that's not why we're here. We're here because of you."

'Well color me fifty shades of 'yeah i fucking figured as much'." I said, sarcastically, throwing her a look of disgust.

"Shut up for one second, Adams. One second."

"Good luck with that. From my experience, once you get her started, she never stops." Lasky muttered.

"I will break your fucking kneecaps, Lasky, I swear to god."

"Oh my god, we're here because we found a flawless plan to keep you from rotting away in a UNSC prison for the treason you so blatantly committed." Karl nearly shouted, clearly exasperated that the dramatic reveal kept getting interrupted.

I blinked. "What?"

How the hell could they possibly get me out of this one? There was no way. I'd fucked up my young life beyond repair with this one. I was a dead girl walking, mostly because if I did somehow make it out of this without going to prison, my mother would kill me herself. Destroy the last living heir to the bloodline of Kal 'Nradaman. Suffocate me with a pillow, so I died slowly, telling me I was experiencing the kind of pain and suffering my stupidity caused her.

Christy gestured at me. "Sit down, all of you. You're going to need to for this."

I sat down on the nearest piece of vaguely dystopian equipment, Christy grabbed a chair, Karl found himself another piece of dystopian equipment, and Lasky joined him on it. Karl looked thrilled, especially when Lasky settled his arm on the back of the thing they were sitting on.

"I look better than her in this fall collection, right?" Lasky asked Karl in a low voice.

"Oh, definitely. So much better." Karl said, a little too eagerly.

"Down, boy." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Okay, so." Christy leaned back, settling in for what would probably be the story of a lifetime, and most likely the biggest bowl of bullshit I'd ever hear. "We found out about that little plan you'd concocted with the Chief and that Vale bitch who's always trying to steal you from me."

"No she's not, I'm pretty sure she actually hates me."

"Shut up." Christy shot me a glare. "Anyway, how we found out isn't really important, but-"

"We found out because your raging jealousy caused you to stalk Adams to the bar and drag me with you, and after we waited for her to leave and then you basically threatened the bartender into telling you what the conversation was about."

"Okay, literally no one asked for your input, Karl. As I was saying, after we found out, we decided that you were probably going to commit treason by taking Lasky hostage so I got Fred to talk to Roland and tell him what was going to happen."

"Wait, so he knew? He knew? You mean Adams shot me in the leg for no damn reason?" Lasky went to go stand up in his little fit of rage, but Karl grabbed his arm.

"Okay, in my defense, I didn't know about all this shit that was going on behind my back, so just know I shot you with the best intentions." I told him.

"The best-" Lasky didnt get to finish his yelp of outrage because Karl slapped a hand over his mouth, then yelped as Lasky apparently bit his hand. Damn, it was getting pretty kinky over there. I was almost jealous. Thel never let me bite him. Granted, that could have been because of my penchant to use my teeth to make up for my lack of size whenever he was forced to practice fighting with me, but that was entirely beside the point.

"So Roland contacted me directly, and we devised a devious plan. The plan was as follows:" Christy cleared her throat. "Roland convinces you to take Lasky off the ship. He drops you onto a decidedly rebel planet that ensures UNSC forces won't come after you because it'll start a huge fucking war if they do and, honestly, you're not really worth all that."

Excuse you, bitch. Who says I'm not worth a war? I'd like to think there were several people who'd start wars over me.

"How did you guys know I was going to do what I did?" I demanded, folding my arms. How had anyone seen that coming? I thought my plan of treason was ingenious because no one would be expecting me to commit treason.

"Please. Karl and I can read you and your stupidity like a book. If anyone here knows the playbook of Adams' dumbfuckery by heart, it's Karl and I. Don't insult me." Christy snorted.

I started to respond, but she cut me off. "I requested leave for a family emergency, and Karl was already on leave, which is why he was available to get dragged on the trip to follow you around." Christy shrugged. "I figured me faking the reason I asked for leave would be the least terrible thing that we'd done, so. And it's not like the UNSC is going to come to Terra IV to knock on my parents' front door to ask how my mom's illness is going. Anyway, my leave got approved thanks to some pressure from Fred, who had a suspicion I was up to something that helped you, and since your distraction helped him and the Chief out, he was more than willing to pull some strings to get me that leave. Karl and I got here yesterday."

Karl waved helpfully at me.

"I told Danny to tell his network to keep an eye out for your ship. Lucky for us, your ship happened to show up at his warehouse. Which worked out well for us."

I held up a hand. "Uh...Network?" I threw a look over at Danny, who was leaning on a concrete support beam.

"Yeah, I have a network of people on this planet." He shrugged. "They need me, so they do what I ask."

"Uh...and what, exactly, is the service you provide for them that makes them need you?" Lasky asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm a drug dealer." Danny said, calmly.

"You're a fucking what?" I demanded, staring at him.

The side of Danny's mouth lifted into a grin. "I'm kidding." He shifted his position on the support beam. "I'm an explosives smuggler. Took over the family business from my dad." He inclined his head towards Christy. "She's the family baby, the one who got out of this ugly business. The business of making and selling explosives, specifically."

I gaped at Christy. "Your family makes and sells explosives?"

She shot me a disgusted look. "You think I joined the UNSC as an explosive technician because I came from a family of woodworkers or what?"

I considered this. "Fair point."

"Thank you. Now, if I could continue?" Christy asked, shooting glances at everyone. We all shut up accordingly. Myself included, because I wanted to know where this wild plan of hers ended and then ask more questions about the Godfather family of explosives.

"Together, Karl, Danny and I-"

Danny held up a hand. "No, just Danny. You and him were throwing out the dumbest shit I've heard in this lifetime. This plan was my idea."

Good god. Danny was like a human version of Thel with less fucks to give.

"Okay, thanks for that clarification I don't remember asking for." Christy practically growled. "Anyway, the plan is this: You and Lasky were talking about the Chief thing on the bridge when Roland picked up a UNSC distress call. It was me, having been found out as a UNSC soldier, and being threatened by rebels on this planet. Because I'm your friend, you charged out saying you were going to rescue me, and Lasky had to come with you because he was positive you were going to get yourself killed and if he just let you get yourself killed, it would seriously damage human-Sangheili interplanetary relations." Christy leaned back. "You, Kasey, tried to land the Pelican on the top of the warehouse, but because you absolutely fucking suck at flying anything, you crashed it. Somehow you two made it out alive and managed to get me safely back to my family. Roland's falsified some files to back up your story, he'll spin the same story I told you, and once you two call for a ride home and feign ignorance, the UNSC will have no choice other than to accept the explanation or be forced to admit the fact that they not only lost Blue Team for a second time, but that a doctor was able to take the Captain of the Infinity with ease." She smirked. "High Com is sure as hell not going to do that."

"So...we're being saved by a few good cover stories that can't be proved or disproved either way and the bureaucratic weakness of an inability to admit mistakes?" I asked, squinting at her.

"Exactly." Christy jabbed a finger at me.

"The other part of the plan is that after you crashed, I met you two here, we weaponized ourselves and went to rescue Christy." He nodded a head towards Ewing. "And he ended up here wanting to help support Christy in her time of need, which was an incredibly well timed coincidence, considering he helped us rescue her."

"Okay, but how do we explain the underwear thing?" I demanded.

"Dude, I don't fucking know. You're on your own for that one. Not even I could have planned for that weird contingency." Danny said, putting his hands up.

Lasky sighed.

"Okay. All done?" Danny asked, straightening up off of his position against the support beam, glancing at Christy.

"Yes, I'm done." She said, standing up.

"Good." Danny faced Lasky and I. "Here's what's going to happen. You two are going to put on all that gear and go stand against that wall." He gestured to a pile of what looked like some kickass guerilla fighting fashion, then pointed at a wall a few feet from the office thing.

Lasky and I obeyed, quickly donning the gear.

"And then what?"

"Then we're going to shoot you."

"You're fucking WHAT?"

Well, my whole day had just been wild from start to finish. I'd lied to my lover, committed treason, stripped down to my underwear, been in a Pelican crash, covered up the treason, gotten shot and was now being ushered into the large mansion of people who ran an entire planet wide explosives trade monopoly. And my day wasn't even fucking done yet.

Danny opened the front door to the huge fucking house that had like a thousand windows and just oozed "very rich explosives smuggling people live here" from all the swooping arches and flying buttresses or whatever the fuck all that shit was called.

"Mom?" He called out, slowly stepping inside. "Is it okay to come in?"

I squinted at Christy. "What, did they forget to turn off the home security system minefield in the foyer?"

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Wait, are you serious?"

I heard Karl choke on a laugh and decided she wasn't serious. At least, I hoped she wasn't serious. You know what? I was just going to follow Danny's lead on this whole thing. The last thing I wanted to do was make an assumption around people who played with explosives for a living. The only reason I made assumptions around Christy was because the UNSC heavily regulated her explosives playtime, but here in the wild west of Terra IV, there was no one to keep anybody from putting C4 in their grandmother's antique vase or wherever rich people put their C4.

"Danny? Is that you?" A voice called out from inside the impressive house, a voice that was warm, motherly and inviting. A vocal manifestation of still warm, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. The opposite of my mother's voice, which was the vocal manifestation of a gruesome homicide.

The woman that appeared, wiping her hands on a dish towel, was a tall woman with salt and pepper hair, a face that was pleasantly beautiful, an older, more gentle looking version of Christy with warm brown eyes. "Oh, goodness. You brought the guests sooner than I thought you would." She gestured at us. "Come in, come in."

She ushered us in, pausing to look over Lasky and I. "Goodness. You two look like you've seen better days."

"Oh, you have no idea. A half hour ago, I was in my underwear." I said, holding out my hand.

She gripped it firmly and shook my hand. "You must be Khase 'Nradaman, or Kasey Adams, or whatever it is you're going by these days."

"Well, your daughter calls me 'you disgusting piece of space garbage', but Kasey is just fine."

She laughed, a high, clear, tinkling laugh. "Goodness, she wasn't exaggerating about the sharp wit."

I went to respond, then slapped a hand over my mouth. The nausea was back.

"Dear, are you alright?"

And that was the moment where I turned and threw up straight into their perfectly manicured flowerbed. Nice.

The woman, who I had guessed by now was Christy's mother, grabbed my shoulders and pushed me inside.

"What's wrong?" Christy demanded, rushing up to my side, upon noticing I had the distinct demeanor I'd carried many nights during basic training after we'd befriended that kid who knew how to make moonshine out of anything. In case anyone was wondering, moonshine made of grass clippings is absolute shit and you'd probably be better off drinking gasoline, or mouth wash or literally anything other than lawn based alcohol.

"Stress barf." I choked out.

"That's not really a thing." Karl said from across the room.

"That's what I said." Lasky told him.

Christy brushed a strand of hair out of my face. "No, seriously. You don't get sick. What's wrong?"

Christy's mom sat me down in a chair and bent down to look at me. "She's not sick, Christina."

"Uh, Mrs. Jamison, what do you mean she's not sick? She looks like she's about to die." Karl said, sounding worried.

"Please, Karl. Call me Beverly, as I've told you to many times." Mrs. Jamison said, with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Uh, sure. Mrs. Beverly, she looks pretty bad for someone who's not sick." Karl said, fucking up again.

Mrs. Jamison seemed to accept it, though, taking a good look at me. "Oh, she's fine. Just a little bout of nausea. Happens to the best of us." She gave me a smile that seemed like she had just found out I had a secret. God, that was terrifying. Which secret? I had so many. I still had that energy sword I'd taken from Thel. Not on me, obviously, since I'd showed up on this planet in my barely there's, but it was still solidly in my position. The secret that I routinely used that staple gun I'd been explicitly forbidden to use? Or maybe the secret that I thought my mom's new Sangheili boyfriend was more boring than a three day old piece of bread? I really needed to cut down on the number of secrets.

"I mean, if you're sure." Christy said, still eyeing me with concern.

"Oh, I'm sure." Mrs. Jamison said breezily. "She'll be alright."

"But like, how do you know?" Karl asked, sounding totally unconvinced.

Mrs. Jamison turned and smiled at him. "Oh, I'm old enough to know a few things, dear. You can trust me on this one."

The nausea had faded to the point that it wasn't an urgent issue, but I still gagged a little bit when Mrs. Jamison suggested everyone move into the dining room for dinner.

I was just about to steel myself to walk in the same vicinity as food when Mrs. Jamison grabbed my shoulder. "I think you should use the bathroom. It's on the third floor. The second door on the right. The staircase is right over there." She pointed, and I saw the staircase, with all its grand deep red carpetry.

I took a step to go do as she said, feeling slightly confused as to why she'd been so specific about using a bathroom on the third floor when she lowered her voice even further. "You'll want something out of the cabinet under the sink. It's right there in front, you can't miss it."

I squinted at her. "Uh. Thanks?"

She smiled at me and entered the dining room with the rest of the crew.

I shook my head and climbed the stairway, which was absolutely fucking huge and way too long for my liking. Like I said before, bad relationship with stairs. I hated them and they hated me more.

I found the tiny bathroom, closed the door and locked it, then knelt down in front of the sink and opened the cabinet doors.

Yeah, no. Fuck that. Fuck that sixty fucking ways to the seventh circle of hell. File that under "shit I don't want to know" and then set it on fire. No fucking way.

I slammed the cabinet doors and leapt to my feet, fumbled with the lock, threw open the door and absolutely fucking collided with Karl.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I demanded, grabbing the doorframe to steady my ungodly mutant frame.

"Mrs. Beverly sent me up here to make sure you did what she told you to." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Why are you losing your shit? What did she tell you to do? Cut up a dead body and flush it down the toilet?"

"What? No, something way worse than that."

"What could possibly worse than dismembering a corpse into indoor plumbing friendly pieces?"

I motioned at him to follow me into the bathroom and threw open the cabinet. "You tell me."

His eyes went wide as he saw what was in there, and he made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. He looked up at me, in vague horror, then held up a finger. He opened his mouth to say something and nothing came out.

"Yeah, see?" I said, giving him the 'i told you so' look.

"Why-why-um-uh...are you?" He asked, his voice sounding shrill.

I looked up at the ceiling. "I mean, it's not impossible?"

"Would it..." He stopped and waved his hands. "I don't even want to ask because it sounds terrible."

"I know what you're trying to ask, and no. Or yes, depending on how you ask it." I said, squinting at him.

Karl frowned, still staring at what was under the cabinet. "One way to find out the truth." He looked up at me. "Do it."

"No. Absolutely fucking not. No way in hell."

"Okay, that's not an option. Get in there and stop being a little bitch." Karl shoved me back into the bathroom and closed the door.

I picked up one of the boxes from under the cabinet and stared at it, making a noise of agony.

"Don't be a little bitch, Adams!" Karl yelled from outside the door.

Far be it from me to be a little bitch. I did what I had to. It took some maneuvering, but I got it done. Now it was a waiting game.

I stepped out of the bathroom and stood next to Karl and we both stared at it, waiting. Waiting for what seemed like an absolute fucking eternity. Just sitting there, waiting.

And then the results flashed onto the small screen.

I threw it away from me like it was on fire and let out an ungodly noise.

"Oh my god." Karl said, staring at me in shock and disbelief. "Kasey, you're pregnant."


End file.
